Chapter 265: Outputting Pounds

  Chapter 257 – Exporting Pounds

Before proposing the gold standard reform, Franz has considered the problem of gold reserves, the best choice is naturally to occupy the gold origin and organize their own manpower mining.

Unfortunately the world’s major gold producing areas are not related to the new Holy Roman Empire, which most of the areas are in the hands of the British.

In this era, the easy-to-exploit gold mines are mainly distributed in South Africa, Russia, Canada, Australia, the United States, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Brazil, Colombia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and other regions.

There is no way, the entire European continent is lacking in gold mines, and even if there are, most of them have been exploited, and now the remaining gold mines are buried underground, and open-pit gold mines no longer exist.

Franz is not an encyclopedia, it is impossible to clearly remember the location of every gold mine, naturally it is impossible to find all the gold mines that exist in the country.

Compared to the low production of gold, Austria’s silver production is much better, in the gold and silver reset system, support the value of the Austrian currency is silver.

After a difficult game, finally the new Holy Roman Empire reluctantly adopted the gold standard reform system. This was the result of Franz’s failure to intervene, and there were also people within the Austrian government who voted against it.

In any case, the gold standard reform is sooner or later, early start can also grab a part of the gold, if late everyone started to grab the gold, then pay the price is big.

Large gold mines are not under the control of the scope, but small gold mines are not without, in addition to the mainland, Austria’s two colonies of Guinea and the Congo also have a lot of gold mines.

The underground gold mines are not mentioned first, the open pit gold mines produced by riverbed alluvial deposits can always be mined, right?

Franz’s expectations are not high, a few tons of production per year, to make up for the domestic gold gap on the line.

As for other gold ore production, or wait for the British to suppress the Indian uprising and then engage in small actions, now or a little bit of peace and quiet, lest it become a target.

By the time the Austrian railroad ship also came out, occupying a first-hand advantage, a few ironclad ships to the colonies a put, have regional naval superiority, and then go to grab the colonial discourse is not the same.

Don’t look at the British navy the world’s first, but they have to guard a lot of colonies. Scattered around the world, in addition to the advantage in the important sea, the rest of the region also depends on the input of the countries.

Before the discovery of the gold mine, the value of these areas and after the discovery of two completely different concepts, it is not worth the countries desperately grab.

According to Austria’s business model, as long as the local business for more than ten years, send up more than 100,000 immigrants, there is no fear of competitors.

War also needs cost, unless it is the kind of giant mine in South Africa, or a thousand tons of reserves of gold, really not enough for two big countries a local war expenses.

Even if South Africa’s gold occupies half of the world, the British most important colony is still India, the reason is very simple, gold mining is also a cost.

Even at its peak, the British gained in South Africa, still less than one-fifth of India, the two are simply not comparable.

Franz naturally can not put the cart before the horse, a run to get gold, at all costs. To put it bluntly, gold is only a manifestation of wealth, other industrial raw materials are also wealth.

The most critical core or the development of domestic industry, the history of Germany so lack of gold reserves, not also developed?

The speed of human creation of wealth in the industrial era, far from a few gold mines can be compared to the development of their own is the most important.

After the two world wars, the British still hold India, South Africa, Australia, Canada and other regions, and finally not obediently let the world hegemony out?

After determining the gold standard reform, the rest of the things Franz left to the cabinet to do.

……

Franz still underestimated the impact of the gold standard reform, the domestic hot debate not to mention, in the European continent also caused a sensation.

London.

The sudden start of the gold standard reform in the new Holy Roman Empire was the first thing that caught the attention of the British government. From the perspective of the development of capitalist market economy, the gold standard system will be more favorable to international trade.

This is for the British, as long as the New Holy Roman Empire joined in their dominant gold standard system, then their British pound currency hegemony, another big step forward.

In this era the British had the largest gold reserves in the world, and London was the world’s largest financial center, so once every country adopted the gold standard, then the pound – gold settlement system they established would become the world’s mainstream.

Lack of gold reserves in the country, had to buy pounds as reserves to stabilize the value of the currency. International settlement, the use of pounds settlement is naturally rare.

Once the pound has become the world’s currency, that brings benefits, it is not a half a star, which will lay the foundation of the British world hegemony.

Knowing is knowing, this is a yang plan. Even if he knew the British plan, Franz still had to hold his nose and admit it.

It can’t be that in order to avoid the establishment of British hegemony, we can’t disregard the economic development of the country, right? The gold and silver exchange ratio changed from time to time, obviously not conducive to the development of industry and commerce.

No. 10 Downing Street, affected by the failure of the war in the Near East, changed ownership once again. In the struggle for power at home, George’s Cabinet had rolled over, and it was now the Whig cabinet of Lord Granville.

The historical Prime Minister, Palmerston, was very unfortunate to be finished off in the last political turmoil, and with the failure of the Near Eastern War, which he himself initiated, it is naturally unlikely that he will be able to make a comeback.

As a political party representing the interests of the financial and commercial sector, the Whigs were also the vanguard of the implementation of the gold standard system, and the gold standard reforms carried out by various European countries in later times were not without their shadow.

Prime Minister Granville said with some surprise: “The Austrians, who have always been conservative, actually took the lead in starting the gold standard reform this time.

I do not deny that Austria joined the gold standard system for Great Britain has the benefit, but this sudden shift, or some people are difficult to accept, you think the Vienna government this reform can be successful?”

Foreign Minister John Russell replied, “Your Excellency the Prime Minister, this gold standard reform by the Vienna government is still more due to the power struggle, the central government wants to strengthen its control over the state governments.

The New Holy Roman Empire is essentially inheriting the legal system of the Holy Roman Empire, which is naturally and inevitably constrained, and the autonomy of the state governments is very high.

Until now, the Vienna government only got the unified diplomatic power and the right to command the army in wartime, and now the Vienna government wants to recover the right to mint coins, so it started the gold standard reform.

Although the time is a little hasty, but the Near East war Austria made a war fortune, now the Vienna government should have enough money in the hands of monetary reform.

In the absence of accidents, there should be no major problems with the New Holy Roman Empire joining the gold standard system.”

After contemplating for a few moments of effort, Prime Minister Granville opened his mouth and asked, “The gold standard reform requires a large amount of gold reserves in addition to funds, and I’m sure that the Vienna government will soon be acquiring gold on the international market.

However, the international market is changing, gold is a scarce resource, and now it should come to the time when the price rises, the Austrians are afraid that they can’t buy enough gold reserves.

However, taking into account the relationship between Britain and Austria, we give the Austrians a loan to help them realize the gold standard reform how about it?”

There is no doubt that Prime Minister Granville is ready to make things happen. As a banker in the international gold market, the pricing power of gold for silver is in the hands of the British.

As long as the British manipulate the price of gold, it will be difficult for Austria to acquire enough gold.

Once can not get enough gold, then the Vienna government can only accept the British loan, and then establish the “pound – gold system” of the standard system.

This will greatly improve the international status of the pound, for international trade with the pound settlement, laid the foundation.

Anglo-Austrian friendship is a joke. In line with the interests of the United Kingdom, that is the deep friendship; once the interests of the contrary, and then deep friendship can also become an enemy.

Historically, Britain and Austria have always been a quasi-alliance, support Austria against Russia is the British Empire to implement the national policy for nearly a hundred years.

By the beginning of the 20th century, in order to contain the Germans, the British turned around and compromised with the Russians, abandoning this traditional ally.

After a half a second of silence, George Grey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, replied, “The Prime Minister’s proposal is a good one, let the New Holy Roman Empire join our monetary system, and the rest will be easy.”

Obviously, the Austrian acceptance of the loan is only a minor issue, the most important thing is to make the Vienna government to recognize the “pound – gold system”, to join their domination of the pound as the international currency settlement system.

In order for the pound to become an international currency brought huge benefits, the mid to late 19th century, the British began to export the pound, using all kinds of means to make governments recognize the hegemony of the pound.

The world hegemony of the British Empire in history was actually built on the monetary hegemony of the pound, and the British seized a great deal of benefits through the obscure means of issuing the pound.

In later times, the British Empire’s colonial empire collapsed, and the first thing that collapsed was also the monetary hegemony, in order to compete for the monetary hegemony, the Americans similarly offered the export of the dollar as a big trick.

From the First World War after the investment in Europe, to the Germans blood transfusion, so that they restore vitality; to the Second World War after the European aid program, are in the fight for monetary hegemony.

The British vast colonies, the Americans have given up, but only the currency hegemony by their dead hand, the interests of which can be seen in general.

Prime Minister Granville asked with concern, “Sir Russell, what do you think are the chances of the Vienna government accepting our goodwill.”

After a moment’s effort of contemplation, John Russell replied smilingly, “It depends on how high our bid is!

Although the economic volume of the New Holy Roman Empire is large, they are at a disadvantage in terms of gold reserves, and they are not qualified to compete on the road to establishing international monetary hegemony.

Right now, apart from the French who could potentially threaten us in this regard, no country in Europe possesses this kind of strength, and of course the Russians are also a threat if they complete their internal reforms.”

After a few moments of hesitant effort, Prime Minister Granville made his decision, “Then we will have to move faster, we must grab more countries before our competitors react.”

(End of chapter)